The concept of modernism in art , at least the one that is the popularised to me and the one I most associated with - i.e modern art has always been a subject of confusion, in both its meaning and its interest to me. On one hand there is that minimalist quality to modernism that I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate , whether it is through architecture or my own work while on the other hand, It often comes up as pretentious , cold and just plain odd, all the while portrayed as "individual creativity and a new deeper way of looking at the world" as a substitute for actual skills and hard work ( at least , thats my view on it . ). Therefore, this lecture was a very good insight on what actually is modernity and the working mechanics of the one who practice it , which in the least , gave me some sort of sympathy and understanding.
To be modern is to be better than be own - that is what our culture identify modernity as. However , Ruskin in his research criticised this fact , stating that the work of new artist were not as good as the one in ancient times ( which again , turn back to my point of lacking skills and actual work.)
Paris in the 1900 was the image of modernity and was the main location of interest for this lecture, Its an example of how society has moved from the close-knitted village lifestyle where nature and agriculture plays the most part to big cities and factories and society became more condensed and standardised and efficient, along with that the advent of new technology gave humanity to alter nature itself => the world became more controllable ,all the while became more confusing , as there were just to many new things. Richard gave one example for this as the trottoir Roullant - the moving walk way, a funny way to move around the city which baffles many at the time.
There was also the idea of enlightenment - a turning away from religion to logic and reason.
with that => cities in the modern period became the centre of culture and life. and are celebrated vigorously , i.e monuments like the Eiffle tower showing the masculinity power of modernisation. Another exmample would be Haussmanisation - where old architecture of Paris is ripped out and rework with larger boulevards and the working class element of the city is move out and the centre became expensive and upperclass- which brought on a new sense exclusivity and division in social classes, which Richard extended with the work of artist at that period like Caillebotte and Manet, showing that even though society became more condensed , ironically we know each other less and became less human. Interestingly enough , Richard also gave examples of new social behaviours, through the flanders - the proro hipster of the time ,showing off how modern they are. At the same time, there is also a change in technique and thinking in art itself through Seurat's Grande Jatte and a laborous work that depict people that are modern yet faceless and automaton => symbolical of the standardised routines of modernity , where people seek to escape. The Kaiserpanorama symbolised a start to the move from viewing the actual world to looking at it through technology , being collective
yet were very individualistic.
The most interesting bit was seeing Max Nordau worrying vision of the world at the end of the 20th century , which almost accurately described or modern society, which also symbolised a part of modernity - the fear of being modern
Modernism is exactly that , it is the fear , the joy and the responses of artist to this changing world. It tries to capture the sensation of the new world through new techniques themselves, fully embracing changes in psychology. And with things like photography being able to capture the world more effectively and accurately , art itself has to altered itself to a new position of being a better way to do it => doing the things that is out of the box , more creative and interesting, which again I'd argue in some aspect .
I can appreciate however , technological development giving way to a better understanding of the world and human body , and most importantly - movement which forms the bases for animation production. Its also very interesting to see works on this again like Giacomo Balla and Duchamp, as during my A-levels , I have familirized myself with their work as I was doing a bit on movement in art. Perhaps it is also this rush of movement and development that influenced things like James Joyce and cubism, where it tries to use chaotic shapes and angle as a symbol to the constant disturbance and dynamics in the modern society , where you are constantly bombard with information.
And with that , a conclusion is that modern is not neutral , it suggest being better and improvement , and thanks to it , it gave rise to a wider vocab of style, education and the idea that forms follows function
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